BETWEEN 1950 AND 1955, thousands of veterans from the notorious German-led, Ukrainian 14th Waffen-SS Division emigrated to North America with the full consent of the respective governments despite immigration regulations in force at the tme that forbade entry to all who served in any branch of the SS. The Jewish community fought a brief, but futile, battle to persuade those governments to deny them entry, denouncing them as war criminals, but Division supporters insisted the young men who had volunteered to serve were exceptional soldiers who had obeyed the international rules of war. An acrimonious dispute, that rages to the present day, ensued. At issue was the nature of the Division and its war record. Were they "pure soldiers" as many of their supporters contended, or, were they, to use Daniel Goldhagen's phrase, among Hitler's Willing executioners? Pure Soldiers or Sinister Legion traces the 14th Waffen-SS division's fortunes from formation in April 1943 to its surrender to the British in May 1946, their subsequent stay as prisioners-of-war in Italy, and their eventual transfer as agricultural workers in Britain. In 1950 they began their immigration to Canada and the United States. Along the way they were recruited by the British as anti-Soviet spies and by the CIA as political assassins. In spelling out the Division's history, the author attempts to shed light on its true nature.
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